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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24736966">mission protocols</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/treescape/pseuds/treescape'>treescape</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, M/M, Possessiveness, Protectiveness, Qui-Gon Jinn Lives, Sexual Content</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 03:29:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,523</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24736966</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/treescape/pseuds/treescape</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He is the most beautiful thing Qui-Gon has ever seen, because he is alive.</p><p>
  <i>Or, Obi-Wan’s been injured on a mission, and Qui-Gon is not okay.</i>
</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Qui-Gon Jinn/Obi-Wan Kenobi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>188</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>mission protocols</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For grandapplewit, who prompted: “Obi Wan goes on a solo mission and it goes south. Several months of no contact later, he drags himself bruised and bleeding to the Temple, and goes straight to the council. Of course, Obi pulls the whole ‘’tis but a scratch’ routine and Jinn just goes ‘the FUCK it is.’ Fast forewords several Bacta soaked hours later to ‘oh Force you’re still alive I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you you terrified me but if you EVER do that to me again I’ll tie you to the bed and never let you leave’ sex.”</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I see that you’ve suddenly taken to violating mission protocols.”</p><p>Obi-Wan’s head comes up sharply, and Qui-Gon thinks perversely that it is more at the suggestion that he’s broken a rule than it is at hearing Qui-Gon’s voice for the first time in two months. Perhaps it is unkind to think such things when Obi-Wan is here before him, safe if not entirely sound. He doesn’t really mean it, but he feels raw, off-balance.</p><p>There is a reason why some things are said only in the privacy of one’s own mind.</p><p>There are still dried flecks of blood on Obi-Wan’s face, up near a wound at his hairline, and Qui-Gon carefully takes his chin in one hand to better inspect it.</p><p>He is the most beautiful thing Qui-Gon has ever seen, because he is alive.</p><p>“Protocols dictate that serious injuries should be tended <i>before</i> the Council is debriefed on non-emergency matters.”</p><p>“It’s hardly serious,” Obi-Wan protests, but his voice is shaky and a little unsure. It sounds small and thin in the cavernous Halls of Healing.</p><p>“It was hardly an emergency,” Qui-Gon counters. He doesn’t mean to diminish Obi-Wan’s work, but there is a difference between <i>important intel</i> and <i>impending crisis</i>. “The Council ordered you here before you could even finish your report.”

Adi had given him that bit of information. Qui-Gon doesn’t think he even took the time to thank her, but he’ll worry about that later.</p><p>“So <i>now</i> you agree with the Council.” Obi-Wan’s voice is disgruntled, but he sags a little as he leans into Qui-Gon’s touch.</p><p>Qui-Gon tries to keep his own breathing steady, his grip light. He knows what it’s like to be a young Knight, barely two years out of the trials and wanting desperately to prove his own worth. He wishes he could find the words to tell Obi-Wan that he doesn’t need to, that he’s already proven himself a hundred times over.</p><p>“On this matter.”</p><p>His eyes travel over Obi-Wan’s frame, instinctively cataloguing details. There are bruises on his face, and the fingers of one hand are swollen, as if they’ve been broken and hastily reset. Qui-Gon isn’t sure that he can bear to see more, but he <i>needs to know</i>.</p><p>“How bad?” His eyes never leave Obi-Wan’s face, but the question is directed at the healers rather than at the man sitting before him.</p><p>Obi-Wan leans a little further against Qui-Gon's hand, but this time it’s more of an indignant nudge. “I’m right here, you know.”</p><p>“Yes.” It’s all he can get out, but he trusts Obi-Wan to understand.</p><p>Obi-Wan’s eyes drift closed for a moment at the reassurance, and he seems to wrestle them open again. “The comm was down.” The words blur together in Qui-Gon’s ears, and he doesn’t know if his hearing is going or if Obi-Wan’s voice is starting to slur. He keeps himself from trembling by sheer force of will. “The ship took a hit. I couldn’t…I couldn’t find a way to contact you.”</p><p>Obi-Wan sounds young and lost. He <i>is</i> young, but Qui-Gon reminds himself that he’s no longer lost. He’s <i>here</i>, after long weeks missing in action, and Qui-Gon can begin to rebuild himself again.</p><p>His fingers run lightly up and into Obi-Wan’s hair, tugging him forward until his forehead rests lightly against Qui-Gon’s own chest. “You came back alive. That’s what’s important.”</p><p>The healers bustle around them, and Qui-Gon breathes.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>---</p>
</div>Qui-Gon wants to stay while Obi-Wan is in the bacta tank, but the healers decisively send him away with orders to finally <i>sleep</i>. Obi-Wan looks like he has choice words to say at the news that Qui-Gon has hardly slept in weeks, and the healers wear smiles that can only be called smug.<p>In the end, he goes because he knows from too much experience that Obi-Wan will rest more comfortably if he isn’t worried about Qui-Gon’s own health. It is too easy to be selfish in Obi-Wan’s presence, but Qui-Gon is learning to temper it. He craves Obi-Wan’s closeness like air, devouring it whole when he can, but he’d made a vow to himself the day Obi-Wan first kissed him.</p><p>Rather than take what he wants, he will give what Obi-Wan needs, so long as he knows the difference.</p><p>He knows it now.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>---</p>
</div>Qui-Gon makes his way to his chambers slowly, strips away his tunic and leggings, and climbs into sheets that haven’t smelled of Obi-Wan for too long. He doesn’t expect to sleep, not really. Not when Obi-Wan is still out of his physical reach.<p>Eventually he must drift off regardless, because he wakes to a dip of the mattress and the brush of fingers against his shoulder. He speaks into that moment of clarity that comes before one is fully awake.</p><p>“They said they’d send someone when you were done.”</p><p>The healers had promised.</p><p>“They did. They sent me.”</p><p>He opens his eyes to find Obi-Wan sitting on the edge of the bed. Obi-Wan’s face is pale, but it’s clear, and Qui-Gon pulls him down into the shelter of his own body. Through a haze of exhaustion, he notes that Obi-Wan moves a little tenderly; it is as if he expects there to be pain and is surprised that there isn’t.</p><p>That would be the cracked rib.</p><p>He buries his face in Obi-Wan’s neck, there above the lines of his tunic. An arm curls around Qui-Gon’s back, hand clutching briefly against one shoulder blade before smoothing into a flat palm.</p><p>It always makes Qui-Gon shiver, to know that Obi-Wan wants to possess him too.</p><p>They lie there for an indeterminate amount of time, until Qui-Gon pulls back just enough to brush their lips together. It’s like something breaks, like there's finally permission to shatter, and Obi-Wan is suddenly pressing kiss after kiss against Qui-Gon’s mouth, his fingers clutching again with a sharpness that Qui-Gon wants to keep.</p><p>“I knew you’d be so mad,” Obi-Wan says. He presses his forehead to Qui-Gon’s, squeezes his eyes shut. “If I didn’t find a way back.”</p><p>Qui-Gon wants to shake his head. Anger could only have come if Qui-Gon survived such a loss, and he doesn’t know if he could.</p><p>But he can’t say such things, so he just pulls Obi-Wan closer.</p><p>“You kept me going,” Obi-Wan confesses, and Qui-Gon guiltily tucks the words away so he can pull them out later, play them on a loop in his mind. But then Obi-Wan is kissing him again, licking into his mouth with a kind of desperation, and Qui-Gon can hardly think at all.</p><p>Even as dazed as he is, limbs heavy with the nausea of too little sleep, the warmth and the smell of Obi-Wan make Qui-Gon feel high on adrenaline. Somehow they dispense with Obi-Wan’s clothing, and then it doesn’t take much before Qui-Gon is able to wrap one large hand around the both of them, cocks sliding together in a way that is both grounding and liberating at once.</p><p>He moves his hand slowly, gently, because there’s too much friction and because he needs to. Later, when Qui-Gon can be assured of Obi-Wan’s full recovery, there will be time for speed and ferocity. Qui-Gon will take him against the wall, on the couch, in the kitchen—any where and every way he can possible get him. But right now…</p><p>Right now, Qui-Gon needs this gentleness, needs to give it and receive it turn. He needs to hold Obi-Wan so close that his hand barely fits between their bodies, pressed tightly against both of their stomachs. He needs to feel them together, needs to breathe Obi-Wan’s air. If Obi-Wan asks for something else, Qui-Gon will grant it; he doesn’t think he could deny Obi-Wan anything in this moment.</p><p>But he covets this softness, wants to hold it so carefully in his grasp that it never startles away.</p><p>Obi-Wan appears to be in agreement. He twists out of Qui-Gon's reach only long enough to fumble for the lube, which is where it always is in the drawer next to the bed, and then he’s back and guiding Qui-Gon’s hand to wrap around them again. He opens the lube hastily, squeezing out far too much, and Qui-Gon can’t hold back a noise at the sudden slickness.</p><p>Obi-Wan tosses the lube somewhere, and then his hand is fitting itself to Qui-Gon’s own. His fingers spread to fit perfectly into the spaces between Qui-Gon’s, and it’s almost too much.</p><p>It’s there, surrounded by heat and sweat and Obi-Wan, that Qui-Gon faces a fact. He had thought he was doing the right thing by refusing to partner with Obi-Wan on missions. It was too dangerous, too distracting; he doesn’t know that he could trust himself to ever be objective if Obi-Wan were in danger.</p><p>He can’t risk that <i>he</i> would put Obi-Wan in danger.</p><p>But this is no better, in its own way.</p><p><i>Don’t leave me</i>, he wants to say into Obi-Wan’s skin. <i>Stay here. Let me go with you. Don’t do this to me again.</i></p><p>But the words won’t leave his lips—they <i>can’t</i>—so instead he just moves and breathes until their hearts beat in perfect, frantic sync.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you so much for the prompt, and thank you for reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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